Holy expo! Sacred objects of desire are billion dollar business

By Peter Shadbolt, for CNN

Updated 0815 GMT (1615 HKT) May 25, 2012

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Religious gems prove pope-ular – Now in its 13th year, the SacroExpo in Kielce, Poland is one of the world's largest exhibitions of sacred art and religious items, including life-size models of the late Pope John Paul II. The population of Poland is 90% Catholic.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Devoted shoppers – Crucifixes large and small are available for churches in Europe's biggest fair devoted to sacral art.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Activity around the Nativity – This year's expo takes place on June 18th. Last year 300 exhibitors from 15 countries took part.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Turning up the heat to get a confession – Some of the larger items that could be supplied are confessional boxes with air-conditioning and heating, handy for many of eastern Europe's chilly, Gothic churches.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Suits you, Father – Vestments for all occasions as well as camouflage ones for military priests working in war zones. Poland has around 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Moments of reflection – Exhibitors take a moment to discuss sales, and possibly higher matters, at the 2011 SacroExpo.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

Roaming catholics – Apostolic Nuncio to Poland Archbishop Celstino Migliore gets a grand tour of the reliquaries and kitsch on show at last year's expo.

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Photos:Poland's relgious items expo

If the mitre fits – The international market for religious items for churches is estimated to be around $4 billion.

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Story highlights

SacroExpo in Poland each June is one of world's largest church trade shows

From electronic bibles to heated pews, ecclesiastic accessories are available

Industry supplying church items is estimated to be worth around $4 billion

Last year's highlight was a full reconstruction of Pope John Paul II's 'popemobile'

It was once that a cassock, a simple cross and a chalice was all you needed to equip the average church, but now the world of liturgical accessories is a big business.

Poland's SacroExpo is one of the largest trade fairs of its type in the world, hosting displays of everything from bells to church alarm systems and evangelical multimedia.

"We've even had electronic Bibles and electronic rosaries, confessional boxes with air-conditioning and heating and special priest vestments equipped for war zones," explains Andrzej Mochoń, President of Targi Kielce, the organizer of SacroExpo.

"The electronic Bibles have been especially popular with the elderly," he says, referring to the pocket PC-like devices which speak the Old and New Testaments.

The trade fair, now in its 13th year in the Polish city of Kielce, is officially called the International Exhibition of Church Construction, Church Fittings and Furnishings and Religious Art. It brings some 300 exhibitors from 15 countries and is now a fixture on the religious circuit. It attracts some 5,000 visitors -- most of these accredited clergy who are in the business of outfitting churches and priests with the accoutrements of the First Estate.

Globally the industry is worth an estimated $4 billion and runs from big ticket items like expensive musical instruments such as church organs to simple wooden rosary beads, which can sell for as little as a few dollars.

"Probably one of the most expensive everyday item for a church would be a chalice for taking communion," says Mochoń. "These can be works of art made of silver or gold and new ones are made in workshops in Germany, the Czech Republic or Italy."

Some of the strangest items on the exhibitors' stands are church vestments designed for missions to war zones such as Afghanistan. These include camouflaged cassocks.

"It's also made of special material to withstand very extreme temperatures," says Mochoń.

There are also highly colored vestments for African priests and plain black favored by Poland's local Catholic priests. Other items include electric candles, automatic church bells and even heated pews.

The company that sells the pews, Polarheat, says that when the temperature in Poland drops to minus 10 degrees celsius it can be as cold as minus 15 in many churches.

"At that temperature, even the communion wine freezes," says a company spokesman. "It can be pretty uncomfortable."

Renewable energy is also becoming increasingly popular to heat church properties, according to Mochoń, not least ancient cathedrals which, because of their cold stone, high Gothic arches and vast planes of stained glass windows, are some of the most notoriously cold places in many European cities.

Other exhibitors point to new directions for the Catholic Church.

A wine company that sells communion wine for Holy Mass reports that priests are favoring whites over reds because the colorless liquid does not make stains on white robes.

The showpiece at last year's event was the reconstructed 18 meter-long "popemobile" of Pope John Paul II.

As well as devotional articles, such as crucifixes and sacral art, the trade fair is also an acknowledgement that churches, especially historic cathedrals, can be expensive to run and need skilled craftsmen to maintain.

Among the services displaying at the expo are internal architects, landscape gardeners, experts in cemetery maintenance and craftsmen that specialize in the manufacture of bells. Other services include agents for religious tourism and pilgrimages.

Pilgrimages to sites of special devotion have been a big business since the Middle Ages, but the ability of people to travel easily and cheaply has seen Catholic pilgrimages grow into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Lourdes in France, believed to be the site of several miracles, regularly attracts more than 5 million pilgrims a year, only slightly below the number one Catholic destination, Rome.